try this i opened it in x5 and put a net surface over it. but i am not allowed to up load files for some reason. i will have to email it to you. send me addy and i will send it. can someone tell me why i cant attach files? it is giving me error saying i am not allowed. i have been a member here for 10 years and i was able to attach before on old site.

i second the nakamura. i have used one for a while and i like them much better then the mori. ease of set up and programming both were easier.

My post has started to act up again. About 2 days after i fixed the nul tool change problem it started to not post the "%" at start of program. my haas alarms out if it is not there. wont let me load program into memory. the % is still in the post in "" right after the section where i fixed the above problem. i am pretty sure i did not change anything else when i change the rest. what could it possibly be.

thanks for all your help. i made the edits this moning and it is working good now. who knew you guys knew what you were talking about

ok thank you i will try that tomorrow and let you know how it worked. that has to do with prestaging the next tool right? now that i think about it it started happening when we got our new VM-6, and i changed the post to turn on the prestage call out. so that would be why it worked fine before and now it does not work.

how do i comment them out? is it / ? infront of each line? do i do it for the 3 lines you have in the [ ] brackets?

i am having a problem with my Haas post. i am using a very lightly modified haas post. i am having a problem when i post only 1 operation of many ( like when i need to rerun a single contour cut or forget to tap a hole or the like) or when i only have 1 op in the program. i will not post the first tool change. it has been happening often. i do not remember it happening before i upgraded to x4. it is very frustrating when you just finished probing the part and you want to cut a contour. it does not call the tool and tries to cut the part with the probe. i dont know how many times my probe has been spun at 12000prm i really need to get this fixed. it was working fine in v9 but now that i have upgraded to x4 it is doing it in both versions.

sorry double posted

so i guess i have to ask the boss to buy a nice new inserted drill to pop holes in these parts to save the corners. what is a good inserted drill for doing that? preferably from sandvik. also what about inserts for a sandvik r390 11mm size inserts? i was using the 2030 at the recommended speed and feed and was melting the corners of in 2 parts. i had better luck with the 4030 grade at half the recommended speed.

I finally got the boss to let me have some time with x4 and the new dynamic milling tool paths. they work great and the boss is very happy with the time savings and tool life gains. Now with the questions. What do you use for entry into the part? ramp or helix? i used helix with a 1 deg angle and the same feed and rpm as for cutting. but i was getting alot of wear on the corners of the endmill. the part was 304l ss. i was pocketing a roughly 2" x 2" x .390" pocket. i was using a 3/8" OSG exocarb aero-sus endmill model 2044. about 6300 rpm and about 45 ipm, full .390" depth. i was wondering what i should have been using for helix feed and speed and angle of entry? i was getting about 32-64 pieces (about 4-8 hours) tool life. the endmill had no corners left when i changed them out. i think i was not feeding right for my entry. when i did these parts before i used an inserted endmill to rough a hole then i cam in with the same OSG endmill to finish the pocket with standard pocket tool path with 10% cut width, and was getting about 300 pieces tool life. the boss did not mind the extra cost on the tools because i save 20 mins per piece cycle time. but i did not like it. i want to do better next time. any suggestions would be great on how i could improve on this would be good. i plan on using these new tool path alot in the future. they are a real time saver. just need to learn the ins and outs of them and i will make the new machine dance. and the boss will be happy Bob

check for blanked entities. you would need to unblank all entities

i will ask inhouse to show me how to hook up post to machine sim. thanks all for your help. i will be showing this thread to the boss next week when he gets back from vacation. maybe he will change his mind.

thanks guys for all the help. i would not want to run 5ax either with out verification but my boss will never go for it. i don't think we will be doing alot of it either. most of the time i think the trunnion will be on the pallet in the corner. we are trying to expand our business to include 5ax. right now we have no need for it. but we do have the need for a much larger machine then what we have and the 5ax add on was not very expensive and it was our year end purchase and so the boss got it. i really hope we get work for it as i would love to learn it and get good at it.

Thanks for the replies. i will be getting training from in house on the 5ax. i will need it. its 4 days. i will give the included post a try. the boss will be happy about that. it will save some coin too. as for the verification software, that will be a no go i know it for sure. he is from the old school and to him software is just a money grab. he will have me do my best in mastercam and then stand at the machine to make sure it will not crash. i know it sounds stupid but i am in the same boat as many on here: spend to get it going then stop spending to get it perfect and fool proof. he has a hard time buying me name brand quality tooling. i have to prove to him it will run x% faster then the cheap stuff and will last x% longer too. you know the deal. its the same in most small shop i think. im counting myself lucking im getting the mill with 5ax, mastercam x4 lvl3 with multiax and solids, and all the holders i "think" i needed. does anyone have a sample 5ax part, something simpler, that has toolpaths on it, that i could have as an example? to start learning from. maybe some sample code for a haas 5ax too. if some one has something i would love start learning as soon as possible so i could get the machine dancing relatively soon after it is installed thanks all

I finally got the boss to get me a new machine. we are getting a HAAS VM-6 with the tr-210 trunnion. i managed to get it fully loaded too. every option i could. now i need to start working on a post for it and learn 5ax programing. i think the easy part was getting the boss to buy everything. the 5ax is starting to make me nervous. What would be the best post to start with? and are there any major mods i will have to do? i have done some minor 3ax post mods before but never even been near a 5ax post. am i in over my head? Should i just get the boss to pony up some more of my x-mas bonus to get a post from in-house? i know lots of you on here have help lots of others make the needed mods and im sure i can do them if i know what i need to do. im not asking for a post im asking for help from the best guys in the business. thanks for your time hope you can help me

i personally would helix bore with a 1/4" endmill and call it a day. do it all the time and much faster then spot, drill, interpolate with end mill. just go in there with an end mill and helix bore.

I only asked here because all the people in this forum are very helpful and someone almost always has the answer. thats what it has do to with mastercam. besides i need to draw the part in mastercam to cut it out. then i form it. thank you all for your help.

anyone know what the symbols are for forming sheet meta are? i have a print here that is a simple angle with a formed gusset in corner. goes from point to half round in corner. it has an F1 symbol on it. i can not seem to find what that means in any of my books here and google was a was of time. any help would be great. it mite be an old military drawing if that helps

i have run programs as large as 20meg off of the usb with no problems at all. it is a new haas maybe thats it but i dont think so. i do it just like iowajim does and works for me big or small.

i am looking for a 1" diam. lollipop cutter. i need to cut a groove in UHMW 1/8" past center on a 1" ball cutter. i would need this asap as usual because the boss promissed this part to the customer before even asking me if we would need any special tools to do it. any help would be great. bob

you can also override feed rate for the first times you use it to slow things down. until you get the hang of it. also if you are using the macros it turns the probe on first then starts to move so if it hits something it is supposed to stop before it breaks. it does for me but my tm2 is not as fast as you vf4. but it should be using the same feed rate as mine.

x and y positive z negative the number coresponding to the corner you want to probe will change the x or y or both to positive or negative. x and y value lets you probe a corner that is cut out or had a rad or chamfer on it. z tells it how far down to probe if you have a rad or chamfer or somehing that would interfer with probe tip

x and y offset is distance from corner to probe. z offset is how far down from probe possition you want to probe part. i have the same probe on my tm2. if you have more questions just ask.

osg 1100 and 1700 drill are great. .008 - .017 per rev and not that expensive either. my loves them for doing the tube sheets we do all the time. we went from 8hrs cycle times to 45mins with them.

i programmed a flow waterjet for 3 yrs and we only used mastercam for programming. i used the highfeed to control the corner feeds and it worked great. play around with the acc and dec rates and the distance from the corner to start slowing down and speeding up. once you find the right combo for your thickness it is sweet.